Family connection journeys

Here are three family journeys. Each takes four weeks, with one activity a week that takes around 20 to 40 minutes.

There is no sign-up, account or data collection. Progress can live on a printable tracker on your fridge, not on our servers.

Every activity comes from our research with families or from tools elsewhere in this toolkit.

Share one meal with every phone in another room, including the adults’ phones.

An adult tells a true story from when they were the children’s age. It could be about a friendship, a scrape, a song or a Saturday. Children can ask anything about it.

Sharing something real about yourself can make it easier for young people to talk too.

You do not need musical talent.

Choose a theme together, such as your family, a good day or something silly. Build a song or poem line by line, with everyone contributing. Record it on a phone if you want to, or simply enjoy making it together.

Use the Five Ways to Wellbeing: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give. Chapter 7 explains them in full.

Around the table, each person says:

• Which of the five feels strongest for me right now?
• Which one has gone quiet?

Adults take a turn too. Do not try to fix anything. Just notice together. If one area has gone quiet, choose one small thing to try this week.

Plan one outing chosen by the children, within a budget that is honest for your family. Free options count.

The adults’ job is to say yes and turn up.

On the way home, ask: what was your favourite part of the last four weeks?

Do not wait for a difficult day. Practise on an ordinary day, like a fire drill.

Use the four steps from Chapter 9:

• Name it, including adults’ difficult days.
• Offer a genuine choice: “Do you need a hug, or do you need some space?”
• Give space.
• Reconnect afterwards.

Take turns pretending to have a hard day. It may feel funny. That is part of the point. When a real hard day comes, the words and steps will already feel familiar.

Each person draws or writes down the people they trust and what they trust them with. Adults make their own maps too.

Find full instructions in Chapter 7.

The key rule is simple: nobody gets interrogated about their map.

Your child’s map may surprise you. Families in our research said this helped them understand one another better and strengthened their relationships.

Take three sheets of paper and draw three houses:

• Good things.
• Worries.
• Hopes and dreams.

Chapter 7 contains the full guide.

Adults make their own Three Houses too and share only what they choose. Nobody has to show anything they do not want to share.

Have a short family conversation.

Ask:

• When someone had a hard day this month, what did they need?
• What have we learned about each other?
• What is one thing we want to keep doing?

Write the one thing you agree on your tracker.

This is a reflection for adults. Share as much with children as feels right.

Think about:

• What from my upbringing do I want my children to have?
• What am I choosing to do differently?
• What will I explain that was never explained to me?

This is not about judging a culture. It is about recognising what you value, what you want to change and what you want to pass on.

Invite a grandparent, elder or auntie to join you in person or on a call.

Ask children to prepare two questions each. They could ask about:

• Where they grew up.
• What school was like.
• Music they loved.
• What they are proud of.

Record the conversation only if the person is happy for you to.

Take one large sheet of paper. Write your family name in the middle.

Around it, add:

• Things your family is good at.
• Times you got through something hard.
• Things people outside the family value about you.
• Small daily things that keep you going.

Put it somewhere visible for the week.

Look back at the reflection, elder’s stories and strengths map.

Each person names one thing they did not know about the family a month ago.

Then decide together: what do we want to do next as a family?